Headset

Adjust your bike's reach

Banish headset creaks with this lovely Cane

The original angle adjusting headset cups

Who'd have thought a headset could change your ride?

No-nonsense headset

Fit-and-forget item

Consistent value performer

Reliable choice

Bling factor 9

Reliable and cheap

Budget component

Disappointing unit

Great apart from the sealing

Mid-price favourite

Super low stack headset

Lovely steering bearing with 10-year guarantee

Trick aid for hydrualic braked mountain bikes

The Centaur headset is the basement model from the Italian giant and is shared among their Veloce, Mirage and Xenon range. It's also compatible with the large majority of frames produced in Italy.

Now that they're installed in their new factory, Hope are churning out the goods.

This Orbit X model is really designed for high end road bikes but it also works well on XC bikes.

Hybrid ceramic bearings will be increasingly cropping up in top quality moving parts over the next few years. Products like hubs, headsets and bottom brackets can all benefit from the advantages of bearings where the containing rings are made of steel.

Chris King don't make an integrated headset because they believe that running the bearings directly in the frame is bad engineering practice. The NoThreadset uses surgical-grade stainless steel cartridge bearings that do a great job.

This headset uses a cartridge bearing for lateral (side-to-side) loads and a roller bearing for vertical loads. A carbon top cap weighing just 4g helps to offset the weight of the bearings but its durability makes it a firm recommendation for tourists.

This French firm have been using roller bearing headsets for decades and their top O'Light model tested here has a more modern appearance than their venerable A9 type.